Constitution Declared Bunk By Bush

[Nomad]

George W. Bush’s Disposable Constitution

By Scott Horton

Yesterday the Obama Administration released a series of nine previously secret legal opinions crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel to enhance the presidential powers of George W. Bush. Perhaps the most astonishing of these memos was one crafted by University of California at Berkeley law professor John Yoo. He concluded that in wartime, the President was freed from the constraints of the Bill of Rights with respect to anything he chose to label as a counterterrorism operations inside the United States.

Here’s Neil Lewis’s summary in the New York Times:

“The law has recognized that force (including deadly force) may be legitimately used in self-defense,” Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty wrote to Mr. Gonzales. Therefore any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away, they said, since any possible privacy offense resulting from such a search is a lesser matter than any injury from deadly force. The Oct. 23 memorandum also said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.”

John Yoo’s Constitution is unlike any other I have ever seen. It seems to consist of one clause: appointing the President as commander-in-chief. The rest of the Constitution was apparently printed in disappearing ink.

We need to know how the memo was used. Bradbury suggests it was not much relied upon; I don’t believe that for a second. Moreover Bradbury’s decision to wait to the very end before repealing it suggests that someone in the Bush hierarchy was keen on having it.

It’s pretty clear that it served several purposes. Clearly it was designed to authorize sweeping warrantless surveillance by military agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. Using special new surveillance programs that required the collaboration of telecommunications and Internet service providers, these agencies were sweeping through the emails, IMs, faxes, and phone calls of tens of millions of Americans. Clearly such unlawful surveillance occurred. But the language of the memos suggest that much more was afoot, including the deployment of military units and military police powers on American soil. These memos suggest that John Yoo found a way to treat the Posse Comitatus Act as suspended.

These memos gave the President the ability to authorize the torture of persons held at secret overseas sites. And they dealt in great detail with the plight of Jose Padilla, an American citizen seized at O’Hare Airport. Padilla was accused of being involved in a plot to make and detonate a “dirty bomb,” but at trial it turned out that the Bush Administration had no evidence to stand behind its sensational accusations. Evidently it was just fine to hold Padilla incommunicado, deny him access to counsel and torture him–in the view of the Bush OLC lawyers, that is.

Among these memos was one for the files from Steven Bradbury, whom the Senate refused to confirm to run OLC, but who continued as a squatter in the position through the end of the Bush Administration. In his memo, the self-styled OLC head rejected a series of John Yoo-authored memos, noting the painfully obvious reasons why they were incorrect (for instance, Yoo’s penchant for misquoting the Constitution). He did this on January 15, 2009—as he was clearing his desk and preparing to hunt for a new job. So why did he leave the ridiculous Yoo memos in place until the last possible second? Michael Isikoff furnishes a very plausible analysis on MSNBC:

We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship. The constitutional rights we learned about in high school civics were suspended. That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution. What we know now is likely the least of it.

[busybee]

Don't know about anyone else's thoughts on recent events, but i would relish the idea of Bush facing war crime charges. I'm afraid i am not keen on the idea of war under any circumstances. There are far too many casualties from both sides yet the instigators who picked the fight in the first place get to sit back and watch the show.

[Nomad]

busybee;1157065 wrote: Don't know about anyone else's thoughts on recent events, but i would relish the idea of Bush facing war crime charges. I'm afraid i am not keen on the idea of war under any circumstances. There are far too many casualties from both sides yet the instigators who picked the fight in the first place get to sit back and watch the show.


That sounds reasonable. Your concern is with humanity in general or specific.

Less war....some here wont like the sound of that. Fair warning.

[busybee]

Absolutely, we cannot all see things the same way - or there would be no such concept as war.

As much as i am very interested in the politics of the day, i care more for people.

[Nomad]

busybee;1157072 wrote: Absolutely, we cannot all see things the same way - or there would be no such concept as war.



As much as i am very interested in the politics of the day, i care more for people.


Ok that leaves you wide open to be labeled a limp fish liberal, pansy ass, and of course the ever popular socialist.

[busybee]

Only by self interested republican bullies, and if that is the case, i can live with that label with a clear conscience.

[Accountable]

The actual memos.



USDOJ: OPA: Publicly Distributed Documents



ETA: I haven't checked. Did anybody say why only 9 memos were released? I'd think there were hundreds or thousands over the 8 years.